HELLS GATE - RORY MEAD

Hi all

Things started off well in the UK, with a short trip to Dublin to see the cousins and a little bit of sightseeing, then over to Wales, where I’m staying with the Jones family. Geraint Jones is an Enduro legend from the 70’s and 80’s and his wealth of knowledge has been a great help. The family runs Yamaha Offroad Experience, which is a day in the mud, scooting round on one of Yamaha’s Enduro bikes. In the winter they run training schools for the entry level Enduro riders, who are looking at improving there skills in the sport.

Winter here has been cold, very cold, the worst in 40 years with lots of snow and ice. This has definitely slowed down my plans to do endless amounts of riding. The snow has finally gone now but for the first two weeks here it was hard to get a decent ride, without risking broken bones and frostbite. Since then I have done a fair bit of riding in the local forest.

In 2008 the local motorcycle club ran a round of the WEC and the extreme test is still there and within walking distance of the house. So as you can imagine, I have lost count on how many times I have ridden it.

HELLS GATE
We sent the bike, Yamaha YZ250, down to Italy with local extremist Paul Bolton, and we managed to get flights from Birmingham to Pisa, Italy for 8 Euro. We arrived on Wednesday and did the tourist thing in Pisa, took hundreds of photos, drunk too much coffee and ate loads of pasta. After endless u turns and detours we found the leaning tower, my god has it got a lean on. The next day we drove to the little town of Barga, the mountain resort where HELLS GATE is run. Not a bike to be seen as we were the first to arrive, so we made the most of our time and walked the special tests. They were tricky but flowing and it was looking to be a really good test providing it stayed dry. It wasn’t to be as on Friday the heavens opened up and it poured down, turning streams to rivers, soil to mud and grippy rock climbs to near impossible.

RACE DAY
The Enduro stared off well and I only got stuck twice on the 1st test and posted the 12th fastest time. As the day wore on the rocks became polished making the tests very hard. In the 2nd test we had 20 minutes to do a 12minute special test and lots of riders were losing lots of time, even Taddy dropped a minute. I managed to stay on time until the last check, the 5 hour Extreme Enduro was wearing me down to a struggling trial rider on this anything but easy course. I was finished, I became negative with the track, the bike and myself, all the things not to do, I struggled to the finish, losing 13minutes on the trail and finished up 31st overall. Only the top 30 get into the night race, I was gutted and kicked myself for losing time. But I know if I had made it I wouldn’t have had the energy needed to give the night race a decent effort. My 1st attempt at HELLS GATE was not a good one, but looking back I did learn a lot. I had been riding most days, running and spending time at the Gym, but it wasn’t enough. I will have to train doubly hard if I am to succeed with my ambition to be a top Enduro rider and I will succeed.

So I have two weeks until the next event, THE TOUGH ONE, and I will have my head down working hard for a decent result.

A special thanks to the Jones family and Yamaha.

Cheers
Rory


If you wish to contact me my e-mail address is rory_mead@hotmail.com



source: The Brothers Mead

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HELLS GATE - RORY MEAD

Hi all

Things started off well in the UK, with a short trip to Dublin to see the cousins and a little bit of sightseeing, then over to Wales, where I’m staying with the Jones family. Geraint Jones is an Enduro legend from the 70’s and 80’s and his wealth of knowledge has been a great help. The family runs Yamaha Offroad Experience, which is a day in the mud, scooting round on one of Yamaha’s Enduro bikes. In the winter they run training schools for the entry level Enduro riders, who are looking at improving there skills in the sport.

Winter here has been cold, very cold, the worst in 40 years with lots of snow and ice. This has definitely slowed down my plans to do endless amounts of riding. The snow has finally gone now but for the first two weeks here it was hard to get a decent ride, without risking broken bones and frostbite. Since then I have done a fair bit of riding in the local forest.

In 2008 the local motorcycle club ran a round of the WEC and the extreme test is still there and within walking distance of the house. So as you can imagine, I have lost count on how many times I have ridden it.

HELLS GATE
We sent the bike, Yamaha YZ250, down to Italy with local extremist Paul Bolton, and we managed to get flights from Birmingham to Pisa, Italy for 8 Euro. We arrived on Wednesday and did the tourist thing in Pisa, took hundreds of photos, drunk too much coffee and ate loads of pasta. After endless u turns and detours we found the leaning tower, my god has it got a lean on. The next day we drove to the little town of Barga, the mountain resort where HELLS GATE is run. Not a bike to be seen as we were the first to arrive, so we made the most of our time and walked the special tests. They were tricky but flowing and it was looking to be a really good test providing it stayed dry. It wasn’t to be as on Friday the heavens opened up and it poured down, turning streams to rivers, soil to mud and grippy rock climbs to near impossible.

RACE DAY
The Enduro stared off well and I only got stuck twice on the 1st test and posted the 12th fastest time. As the day wore on the rocks became polished making the tests very hard. In the 2nd test we had 20 minutes to do a 12minute special test and lots of riders were losing lots of time, even Taddy dropped a minute. I managed to stay on time until the last check, the 5 hour Extreme Enduro was wearing me down to a struggling trial rider on this anything but easy course. I was finished, I became negative with the track, the bike and myself, all the things not to do, I struggled to the finish, losing 13minutes on the trail and finished up 31st overall. Only the top 30 get into the night race, I was gutted and kicked myself for losing time. But I know if I had made it I wouldn’t have had the energy needed to give the night race a decent effort. My 1st attempt at HELLS GATE was not a good one, but looking back I did learn a lot. I had been riding most days, running and spending time at the Gym, but it wasn’t enough. I will have to train doubly hard if I am to succeed with my ambition to be a top Enduro rider and I will succeed.

So I have two weeks until the next event, THE TOUGH ONE, and I will have my head down working hard for a decent result.

A special thanks to the Jones family and Yamaha.

Cheers
Rory


If you wish to contact me my e-mail address is rory_mead@hotmail.com



source: The Brothers Mead

Read more...

'SUMMER OF SUZUKI'

KR File PicThe "Summer of Suzuki" continues to burn brightly after the third round of five in this season's New Zealand Superbike Championships near Timaru on Sunday.

Suzuki riders top the podium in six of the series' nine bike classes and, most significantly, lead the way in the four most prestigious categories -- superbikes, 600cc sports production, formula three and Pro Twins classes.

The superbikes battle continued to rage at round three of the series at Levels Raceway, near Timaru, on Sunday, with two Suzuki men -- Hamilton's national No.2 Andrew Stroud and Australia's defending champion  Robbie Bugden -- sharing the day's wins on their respective GSX-R1000 machines and again hogging the podium.

It was edge-of-the seat racing as there was absolutely nothing to separate the pair through both superbike races, Stroud winning the first one by just 0.09 tenths of a second from Budgen.

The Kiwi champion in 2007, 2008 and 2009, Brisbane's Budgen responded with a start-to finish win in the second race, crossing the line just three-tenths of a second ahead of Stroud after 15 furious laps.

It could easily have been a 1-1 result for the Kiwi but a final-lap challenge from Stroud didn't work out. Stroud did, however, smash the outright lap record in that race with a sizzling time of 1m 03.598s.

Stroud said he was disappointed with his result in race two.

"I was on the outside of him on the long left-hander and nearly went right around him.

"If I had the time again I would have tried to make it stick but he changed direction and I couldn't quite make it stick."

It remains a Suzuki 1-2-3 on the championship podium, too, with a first-timer in the class, Christchurch’s James Smith, finishing fourth and fifth in Sunday's two superbike races, enough to keep him third in the standings.

Even though it was Smith's worst result of the season thus far, he is not at all concerned.

"The superbike bid is really just a learning thing for me. Of course I am trying very hard to win the superbike title, but it's actually the 600cc class that I'm concentrating on.

"Winning the 600cc title is a box I want to tick before I move on to the superbikes class fulltime."

And Smith has irons burning brilliantly in that 600cc class firestorm as well.

The 29-year-old printer reckons he has double the chance to celebrate this season  -- he is the only rider to tackle two classes this season and he’s surprising even himself by standing on the podium in both of them.

Smith finished 2-1 in his two 600cc sports production class outings on Sunday, sharing the day’s overall honours with Hamilton’s Nick Cole (Kawasaki) and maintaining his six-point advantage at the top of the standings.

"I feel I'm riding well but I simply ran out of energy in my second superbike race," said Smith. "I’ve had a bad tummy bug and I’ve not been able to eat.

"But at least I hung on to third in the superbike class," he said.

"I have been on the pace in the superbike class but just not able to keep it up for the whole day today.

"We have a bit of a break now, with round four at Manfeild next month, and I’ll just keep working away at my fitness between now and then."

Formula three defending champion Glen Williams (Suzuki SV650), of Palmerston North, has meanwhile stretched his lead at the top of his class, while Dannevirke's Geoff Booth (Suzuki SV650) remains top of the pro twins class.

In the sidecars class, Wanganui pair Stephen Bron and Dennis Simonsen appear to be running away with the championship, taking their Suzuki-powered rig to another hat-trick of wins at the weekend.

Source: Suzuki NZ

Read more...

'SUMMER OF SUZUKI'

KR File PicThe "Summer of Suzuki" continues to burn brightly after the third round of five in this season's New Zealand Superbike Championships near Timaru on Sunday.

Suzuki riders top the podium in six of the series' nine bike classes and, most significantly, lead the way in the four most prestigious categories -- superbikes, 600cc sports production, formula three and Pro Twins classes.

The superbikes battle continued to rage at round three of the series at Levels Raceway, near Timaru, on Sunday, with two Suzuki men -- Hamilton's national No.2 Andrew Stroud and Australia's defending champion  Robbie Bugden -- sharing the day's wins on their respective GSX-R1000 machines and again hogging the podium.

It was edge-of-the seat racing as there was absolutely nothing to separate the pair through both superbike races, Stroud winning the first one by just 0.09 tenths of a second from Budgen.

The Kiwi champion in 2007, 2008 and 2009, Brisbane's Budgen responded with a start-to finish win in the second race, crossing the line just three-tenths of a second ahead of Stroud after 15 furious laps.

It could easily have been a 1-1 result for the Kiwi but a final-lap challenge from Stroud didn't work out. Stroud did, however, smash the outright lap record in that race with a sizzling time of 1m 03.598s.

Stroud said he was disappointed with his result in race two.

"I was on the outside of him on the long left-hander and nearly went right around him.

"If I had the time again I would have tried to make it stick but he changed direction and I couldn't quite make it stick."

It remains a Suzuki 1-2-3 on the championship podium, too, with a first-timer in the class, Christchurch’s James Smith, finishing fourth and fifth in Sunday's two superbike races, enough to keep him third in the standings.

Even though it was Smith's worst result of the season thus far, he is not at all concerned.

"The superbike bid is really just a learning thing for me. Of course I am trying very hard to win the superbike title, but it's actually the 600cc class that I'm concentrating on.

"Winning the 600cc title is a box I want to tick before I move on to the superbikes class fulltime."

And Smith has irons burning brilliantly in that 600cc class firestorm as well.

The 29-year-old printer reckons he has double the chance to celebrate this season  -- he is the only rider to tackle two classes this season and he’s surprising even himself by standing on the podium in both of them.

Smith finished 2-1 in his two 600cc sports production class outings on Sunday, sharing the day’s overall honours with Hamilton’s Nick Cole (Kawasaki) and maintaining his six-point advantage at the top of the standings.

"I feel I'm riding well but I simply ran out of energy in my second superbike race," said Smith. "I’ve had a bad tummy bug and I’ve not been able to eat.

"But at least I hung on to third in the superbike class," he said.

"I have been on the pace in the superbike class but just not able to keep it up for the whole day today.

"We have a bit of a break now, with round four at Manfeild next month, and I’ll just keep working away at my fitness between now and then."

Formula three defending champion Glen Williams (Suzuki SV650), of Palmerston North, has meanwhile stretched his lead at the top of his class, while Dannevirke's Geoff Booth (Suzuki SV650) remains top of the pro twins class.

In the sidecars class, Wanganui pair Stephen Bron and Dennis Simonsen appear to be running away with the championship, taking their Suzuki-powered rig to another hat-trick of wins at the weekend.

Source: Suzuki NZ

Read more...